Ducati’s Marc Marquez set a new all-time lap record as he dominated the timed MotoGP practice session at Le Mans.
Marquez set a time of a 1:29.855 to break the previous lap record of the Bugatti Circuit by six tenths of a second, which was held by reigning World Champion Jorge Martin.
The first half of the session saw Yamaha continue their promising performance from Jerez, with Fabio Quartararo leading Jack Miller at the top of the timesheets.
However, it didn’t take long for Marquez to pick up where he left off in the opening session, as the Ducati rider set a 1:30.530 to move four tenths ahead of Quartararo at the top.
Maverick Vinales was Marquez’s closest challenger before the rest of the pack came out on their final runs, but a crash from the Tech3 rider brought out the yellow flag to disrupt the rhythm of riders attempting to book a spot in Q2.
Quartararo briefly returned to the top of the standings before Marquez set an unbeatable 1:29.855 to break the all-time lap record and end the session as fastest.
The Yamaha rider held on to second place at his home track, 0.177s off the best time from the Ducati rider.
Francesco Bagnaia continued a strong Friday showing by taking third, 0.184s from his team-mate’s best time of the day.
Fermin Aldeguer was the top rookie of the session in fourth as he bested team-mate Alex Marquez in fifth.
Jack Miller continued a strong session as he booked a place in Q2 in sixth, with Pedro Acosta and Maverick Vinales just behind in seventh and eighth respectively.
Franco Morbidelli recovered from a crash in FP1 to take ninth, with Marco Bezzecchi rounding out the top 10 to seal the last automatic Q2 spot.
Luca Marini ended timed practice in 11th, while home hero Johann Zarco settled for 12th after a crash late in the session.
Enea Bastianini took the flag in 13th while Joan Mir also crashed in the session and finished 14th.
The Trackhouse pair of Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura completed the session in 15th and 16th respectively, while Alex Rins was 17th.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was the sole Ducati rider not to automatically reach Q2 as he ended the session in 18th.
Brad Binder suffered a heavy crash late in the session and could only take 19th, while Takaaki Nakagami was 20th on his debut weekend as a Honda wildcard.
Miguel Oliveira was 21st with Lorenzo Savadori completing the standings in 22nd.
